Weekend Wizard back quickly for Canadian Juvenile

Weekend Wizard is clearly the one to beat in the $60,000 Canadian Juvenile at Century Downs on Sunday. However, he is coming back a week after winning the $50,000 B.C. Cup Nursery at Hastings, and the trip across the Rocky Mountains can take a toll on horses.

He will also be tackling a pretty nice horse in Shimshine, who will be going for his fifth straight win in the seven-furlong dash. Also in the seven-horse field is Remarkable Vintage, who was nothing less than spectacular in winning a maiden special weight race by 12 1/4 lengths in his debut Oct. 21.

Trained by Craig MacPherson, Weekend Wizard easily owns the best Beyer Speed Figures, and after romping by 8 1/4 lengths in a maiden special weight race Sept. 24, he got the best of Wise Market in the Nursery. Wise Market was coming off back-to-back wins in the $100,000 Ascot Graduation and $100,000 Jack Diamond Futurity.

Weekend Wizard drew post 3, with Keishan Balgobin riding.

With Rico Walcott riding for trainer Elige Bourne, Shimshine rallied to beat Regal Max at Northlands Park in the $65,000 Birdcatcher on Sept. 2 and the $50,000 Alberta Premier’s Futurity two weeks later. The result was the same when they met in an open allowance race at Century Downs on Oct. 8.

Shimshine will break from post 2 under Walcott.

Regal Max drew post 4, with Rey Williams picking up the mount from Shamaree Muir.

Trainer Ron Grieves said he knew Remarkable Vintage was the best baby in his barn, but he didn’t expect him to dominate his opponents like he did when he paid $20.10 for his easy win in his debut. The margin could have been a lot more, but jockey Larry Munoz had wrapped up on him by the time they turned for home.

“I was a bit shocked,” said Grieves. “I actually started stomping my feet when I saw the first quarter and was wondering what the jockey was doing letting him run that fast. After the race, Larry just said, ‘Wow.’ ”

Grieves is hoping the homebred colt by Schramsberg will be able to sit just off the other speed after he breaks from the outside post with Munoz aboard.

“I have another baby in the barn that is really fast coming out of the gate, and when I worked them together, Remarkable Vintage was very content to sit behind him,” Grieves said. “We took our time with him because he was afraid of just about everything when he first started training, and he’s still pretty high-strung. He is coming back pretty quickly, but he came out of the race in good shape, and he doesn’t have to ship like Craig’s horse.”